No, caffeine is a pick-ME-up; 'pick up' is the verb.
posted by nori at 10/26/2007 04:24:00 PM
No(ri's)Mo(bile)Blo(g). Har. In which I delve further into the world of geekdom, web 2.0ness, and general blogophilia by posting shit from my mobile phone.
posted by nori at 10/26/2007 04:24:00 PM
4 Comments:
Do you mean "No caffeine is a ..." or "No, caffeine is a ..."?
Would you explain how to properly use a hyphen when connecting adjectives? It has bothered me for some time, and I haven't been able to find a good explanation on its usage.
Yeah, I did mean "No, caffeine ..." but apparently blogger thought it knew better, and stripped the comma for me. Thanks, blogger. (I'll go add it back.) (I even looked in my text-message outbox, and it's there, with the comma!)
Hyphens are used when connecting *adjectives*, yes. But "pick-up" in the above context is a verb -- what the Germans call a "separable verb," one to which a preposition is inherent. "To pick" is different than "to pick up". So, you can pick something up, but when you do, it's considered a pick-up (or pickup, as in truck). However, if you use the hyphen, it's immediately in the nominative form, not the verb form. You can't "pick-up" a drink (because that's a noun), but you can "pick up a drink."
Make sense?
to be annoying, it could be an adjective describing the coffee. as in this coffee is for being picked up, and is therefore pick-up coffee, as opposed to that kind that just sits on the counter all the time and must be drunk through a straw for fear of lifting it.
You're right, that is annoying! :)
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